Pick an animal and refer to the charts above to “Pimp Your Character” ™.

If done right your character will write or reveal it’s own story. All you have to do is be open to hearing it. Don’t be afraid to use peoples own prejudices and expectations.

You might be surprised. Here’s an example.

Sometimes I get lucky. Real life provides me with a story and character idea and they almost write themselves. NO FITS NILSON! was one of those.

Good luck Pimping Your Character!

Zachariah OHora is the author and illustrator of Stop Snoring Bernard! (Henry Holt 2011) which won the Society of Illustrators Founders Award for 2011 and was chosen as the PA One Book for 2012.

His latest book No Fits Nilson! was awarded a Kirkus Star and featured in The New York Times Book Review. He is currently working on My Cousin Momo (Dial Books, Winter 2015) and Wolfie the Bunny written by Ame Dyckman (Little Brown, Spring 2015).

He is repped by Sean McCarthy of the Sean McCarthy Literary Agency. His website is Zohora.com. Check out his blog and follow him on Twitter @ZachariahOHora.

My daughter has learned to fake snore with the help of STOP SNORING BERNARD! She has been reading your book on the drive to preschool for the past week. I can’t wait to try pimping a character – I think your bunny example is my favorite.

Even with all the focus on character driven books, I’ve had a hard time honing in on the right exercises to spark my character development. But after reading your post, I’ve rattled off a whole little list of pimped characters!

Thank you for your excellent pimping tutorial. Your characters are fabulous. I have been trying to think this way more and be bolder with my characters. New mantra: Don’t be a wimp, just pimp, pimp, pimp! 🙂

What’s interesting to me is how you use your drawing to come up with a story … because I used to sketch but haven’t for a long time. It hadn’t occurred to me to try it combined with writing. Seems a logical step but not a connection I made. Thanks for the idea!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAH! I had to outdo a comment already posted that had Bwahahah already in it. Some of these great comments are soooo calm. Howso? That post totally got me riled up. You had me at “West Side Story” reference b/c the switchblade made me think of finger-snapping squirrels and which color gang they are…Anyway, thanks oodles and bunches. And as a mother of a 20-month old, there is NO humor in bedtime yet for me. I don’t trust anyone who says there is. Haha, just kidding! Kinda. 😉

Thank you Zachariah! I will give pimping my character a go — at least in my imagination as I am rubbish at drawing. By the way, we all love reading No Fits Nilson at my house and I am a big fan of your art work.

Gotta give your characters BLING! HA! I love this post. You had me smiling and thinking. I hate to say it, but the squirrel with the switchblade cracked me up. I know what he is doing… heehee.
Thanks for your post.

Love this line: “Say you are having trouble picking an animal. Maybe you hate animals? If so, try writing dystopian YA.” However, I’m wondering if this idea might work for bugs, unicorns, and even people.

Zachariah,
I loved Stop Snoring, Bernard! And your Obama lawn sign! And I am happy to find your post here 🙂 Your advice is very much appreciated and timely. After two weeks of digging through scenarios, a character approach to ideas sounds great.
Best,
Diana Zipeto

This made me laugh out loud because the fit diagram describes the current process I use with my youngest daughter.
I can’t wait to read No Fits, Nilson.
Thank you for the great post on developing a unique character! Inspiring!
~Tia Svardahl